Madrid, Rome November 18, 2015- Telefonica Business Solutions, a leading provider of a wide range of integrated communication solutions for the B2B market, and Telecom Italia Sparkle, the international services arm of Telecom Italia Group, announced today LTE Roaming peering and A2P Messaging agreements.

The LTE Roaming Peering Agreement will ensure interoperability between TI Sparkle and Telefonica’s LTE networks and it will generate a consistent user experience of both companies’ mobile operators customers’ 4G subscribers when in roaming.

The LTE roaming peering between Telefonica and TI Sparkle is an extension of an existing IPX peering agreement signed in 2014, which enables live traffic including voice, signalling and data roaming, as well as end-to-end QoS. This new agreement is a further addition to the global IPX ecosystem, which continues to grow as an increasing number of interconnected operators add value to their propositions with new IPX enabled solutions.

Through the A2P Messaging Agreement, Telefonica and TI Sparkle will improve their service quality by connecting their A2P messaging hubs and by establishing a direct route between the two Groups’ networks and at the same time provide better control on fraudulent traffic.

“This LTE Roaming peering agreement increases the IPX scope between Telefonica and TI Sparkle and also benefits millions of end users of both parties that will enjoy 4G Roaming in an extended footprint. The A2P Messaging market is growing very fast, the connection of both of our hubs will provide a high quality, secure and better coverage service to our customers”states Juan Revilla, Wholesale Business CEO at Telefonica Business Solutions.

“Providing seamless LTE roaming to mobile operators through Diameter Signalling is very important for TI Sparkle as it fulfills our promise of developing solutions that offer and facilitate interoperability among operators”, says Alessandro Talotta, TI Sparkle Chief Executive Officer. “We are pleased to expand our proposition with Telefonica and enhance our existing multiservice IPX connection to make LTE roaming an easier solution for operators and their end consumers, and provide A2P Messaging with a wider coverage and higher quality”.

Telefonica Business Solutions’ LTE Diameter Exchange service offers an ideal solution for mobile operators requiring extensive LTE international coverage. Built over Telefonica’s IPX network, it ensures consistent delivery and high service levels, wherever and whenever needed. The network has built-in full redundancy, geographical diversity, reliability and scalability. Based on hub architecture, it combines international coverage expansion for LTE signalling traffic with invoicing, security and reporting functions.

Telefonica Business Solutions’ Global Enterprise Messaging (GEM) is a service for network operators that enables them to offer advance, high-volume SMS A2P messaging services to their corporate customers in a centralized and automated way through high quality routes. Through GEM, SMS can be delivered to any mobile destination in the world making it possible to implement large-scale, mass messaging services with multiple applications across diverse industries and activities, including banking and financial services, healthcare, marketing campaigns, ecommerce and entertainment.

TI Sparkle’s LTE™ Diameter Signalling roaming solution is the latest addition to its IPX+ multi-service portfolio with the aim to simplify global roaming complexity. Built on TI Sparkle’s leading global IP network, TI Sparkle’s LTE™ Diameter Signalling roaming solution provides reach, scale, and reliability for mission-critical operations and enables MNOs to fast track their roll-out of LTE™ roaming in a cost-effective and scalable manner, while creating differentiation in a highly competitive marketplace.

TI Sparkle's SMS Transit is the A2P solution designed to offer customers - including SMS Providers, OTTs, Financial Institutions and Enterprises - an effective and reliable way to deliver SMS towards all Mobile Operators through a single IP connection.